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Healthcare Facilities

The Impact of Design on Enhancing Patient Safety
Monday, June 08, 2009

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported that between 44,000 and 98,000 patients die each year due to medical mistakes. These preventable mishaps have become a bigger killer than breast cancer and car accidents. Since the time the statistics were released, research and discussions on patient safety and healthcare quality have exploded.  Architects and healthcare facility planners now have access to a plethora of resources and information allowing them to build with the focus of improved patient safety.

Part of the solution to providing patients a safer environment revolves around the performance of the care staff. Dr. Bob Wears, scientific director of the Florida Patient Safety Corp, said, "There's a lot of evidence the architecture and building design changes how people work, but most of that hasn't filtered into healthcare."

When hospital staffs consistently feel stressed and fatigue or are disrupted and distracted from tasks, the patients' safety and quality of healthcare is compromised. The design of the healthcare facility is a key solution. Key examples include:

  • Eliminating centralized nurse stations and creating perches where a single nurse can monitor three to five patient rooms will balance patient accessibility and reduction of disruptions.
  • Designing all patient rooms identically so care staff can quickly find necessary materials is ultimate in reducing stress.

The second part to enhancing patient care is to form an environment that prevents patient accidents and controls infection.  Several hundred patients in healthcare facilities are treated for sicknesses other than what they were admitted for. In preventing infection, key building design functions play a role.

  • Hand-washing is the No. 1 way to reduce spread. Patient rooms can be designed to warn hospital staffers wearing magnetic badges by shining a red light if hands were not washed within a minute of entering.
  • The installation of HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air Filters) throughout a healthcare facility to improve air quality and trap a large amount of very small particles.
  • Creating private rooms where all care is performed on a patient from admission to discharge reduce cross contamination possibilities from one space to another space.

Changing the environment around the patient prevents patient accidents and inspires healing for shorter stays.

  • Design patient rooms with the bathroom on the same side of the room as the bed and installing slip-proof floors to reduce falls.
  • Design patient rooms with glass walls to allow nurses to easily view patients' status from nursing stations.
  • Design patient rooms to incorporate natural light which is shown to allow patients to gain better orientation, decrease confusion, and is associated with both a shorter length of stay and lower use of pain medications.

Additionally, less outside noise around patient rooms provided by sound absorbing flooring improves patient sleep patterns and communication between staff members and physicians, as well as between patients and their caregivers.

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